H&M hoodie: Manchester United striker Romelu Lukaku joins outrage against 'racist' advertising campaign

Belgium international posted version of the controversial image that read 'Black is Beautiful'

Manchester United striker Romelu Lukaku has joined the criticism of H&M’s controversial new advertising campaign in a unique and brilliant way after the retailer sparked a racism row this week.

H&M have apologised for advertising an image that was branded racist that showed a black boy wearing a green hoodie with the slogan ‘Coolest Monkey in the Jungle’ across it.

The high street fashion chain were accused of a “disgusting and shameful” decision, with the advertisement since pulled from their website, but Lukaku decided to post his own version of the image onto his Instagram page that has immediately drawn praise from his followers.

Changing the slogan on the hoodie to “Black is Beautiful”, Lukaku added the message: “You’re [a] prince soon to be a king. Don’t let anybody tell you different...#blackexcellence.”

A number of his followers shared the image and praised the Belgium international for posting the “powerful message”, while others tagged the official H&M Twitter account so that they would see his post.

The hoodie remains on sale for boys aged one-to-10 years old for £7.99, but the image is no longer being used and has instead been replaced by one of the clothing item alone.

An H&M spokesman told The Independent: “This image has now been removed from all H&M channels and we apologise to anyone this may have offended.”